Method of making textured fabric



Nov. 30, 1954 L; A. RUNTON METHOD OF MAKING TEXTURED FABRIC 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 28, 1953 INVENTOR [551/5 A. EuA Z BY I ORNEY Nov. 30, 1954 L. A. RU NTON METHOD OF MAKING TEXTURED FABRIC 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 28, 1953 fhiis v v INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent METHOD OF MAKING TEXTURED FABRIC Leslie A. Rnnton, Harrison, N. Y., assignor to Alexander Smith, Incorporated, White Plains, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application December 28, 1953, Serial No. 400,579

20 Claims. (CI. 28-46) This invention relates to a method for making textured fabrics and is particularly applicable to making textured fabrics of the velvet floor covering type.

An object is to provide a novel and improved method for making a textured pattern in a fabric of the above type without altering the standard weaving technique.

-Another object is to produce a textured pile fabric having novel and improved characteristics.

Various other objects and advantages will be apparent as the nature of the invention is more fully disclosed.

The nature of the invention will be better understood by referring to the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings inwhich certainspecific embodiments are set forth for purposes of illustration.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a pattern roll showing the wetting stage in the present process;

Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view of a velvet pile fabric after weaving and before treatment to produce the textured effect;

Figs. 3 to 5 are views similar to Fig. 2 illustrating different forms of textured effects obtained by the present process;

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 2 of a fabric illustrating a further embodiment of the invention;

Figs. 7- to 10 are views similar to Fig. 6 illustrating diiflcgrenfi5 forms of textured effect produced from the fabric 0 1g.

In one embodiment of the invention the pile fabric is woven with pile yarns of the pull-down type disclosed more in detail in Mersereau et a1. Patent No. 2,662,558 wherein the yarn composed of two or more plies is given a hard plying twist in one direction, which may. or may not be. the same direction as the singles twist, and is permanently set, preferably with the yarn pulled out in a straight condition. The yarn is then reverse twisted to pass the zero twist point and given a loose plyingtwist in the opposite direction which is given a temporary set, as by light steaming.

Whensuch yarn is woven as pile in a pile fabric and the temporaryset removed as by wetting the yarn tends to pull down and coil into a multiple helix with the plies separated and interleaved.

A typical velvet pile floor covering is illustrated in Fig. 2 in which pile yarns 10,. of the reverse twisted type having a temporary set as above described, are bound under filler shots 11 by chain warps 12. The backing also includes stufier warps 13 and lower filler shots 14, all of which are bound together by the chain warps 12. This construction represents. a standard velvet type carpet weave and maybe varied in accordance with standard practice.

The backing may also comprise an Axminster weave or other standard carpet construction if desired.

In accordance with the present invention the woven fabric of Fig. 2 is passed under a pattern roll 15 as shown in Fig. 1 having raised areas of sponge rubber 16 forming the pattern. The cylinder is preferably of a size such that a revolution forms one repeat of the pattern. A perforated pipe 17 leads to a water roll 18 which wets the sponge areas 16 to transfer the water to the corresponding areas 19 of the pile as the pattern cylinder 15 rotates.

The wetting tends to remove the temporary set from the wet areas 19 and relaxes the reverse twisted yarn so that the plies separate and pull down into interleaved helices 20 as illustrated in Fig. 3.

The pull-down may be facilitated by a. simple back beating or vibrating mechanism which may be used .to vibrate or beat the backing during the pull-down operation.

\ may be brushed or napped by standard napping equipment to untwist the straight tufts 21 into the full form; shown at 22 in Fig. 4. The untwisted tufts 22 have less tendency to pull down when wet. Hence the fabric can be subjected to the usual finishing operations, such as shearing, steaming, back sizing, etc. The result will be a pattern of coiled yarn 20 and a field of soft yarn 22. The soft yarn 22 may be sheared to the same height as the coiled tufts20 if desired.

An intermediate product can be made from the fabric of Fig. 3 by brushing or napping the tufts: 21 to partly untwist the same so that, when wet, they will pull down to a lesser extent than the coiled tufts 20.. .The entire pile surface may then be wetted and the back vibrated if desired to cause the partly untwisted tufts 21 to pull down and coil to form helical tufts 23 (Fig. 5) which are higher than the tufts 20. After finishing the fabric will remain in this form.

In the embodiment of Fig. 6 the backing is the same as in Fig. 2 and has been given the same reference characters. The pile yarn 30 of Fig. 6 is a frieze yarn of two or more plies in which the singles are hard twisted and permanently set while straight and are then plied with a twist of the same hand as the singles and given a temporary set in straight or slightly cockled form. A

yarn of this type tends to untwist and become longer it to assist the untwisting of the tufts and to cause the yarn to untwist and form individual singles 31 Which are straight and longer than the unwet tufts 32 as shown in Fig. 7. The fabric may then be quick set by known techniques to form a product having patternareas of straight singles 31 and afield of lower plied tufts 32.

.Instead of setting the fabric of Fig. 7 the ends 31 may be brushed or napped to untwist the same and form soft high pile 33 as in Fig. 8 in the pattern areas with lqawplied tufts 32 as a field. This fabric may be set as a ove.

.Thehigh tufts 31 of Fig. 7 or 33 of Fig. 8 may be sheared to form a fabric in which the pattern area is of the same height as the field.

Instead of setting the fabric of Fig. 7 the high ends 31.may be sheared to form tufts 34 (Fig. 9) of the same height as the low pile areas 32 of Fig. 7 and the entire pile area wetted to relax the remaining pile tufts 32 and cause them to untwist and become higher as shown at 35 in Fig. 9. The fabric may then be finished by the usual steps of steaming, shearing, back sizing, etc. to form a fabric in which the pattern is depressed below the field. The ends 35 of Fig. 9 may be napped if desired to form a field of soft tufts.

The same procedure may be applied to the napped fabric of Fig. 8 which may also be treated by shearing the high soft pile 33 to form low soft pile tufts 36 (Fig. 10) of the same height as the pile 32 of Fig. 8. The entire pile area may be wetted to cause the pile 32 to untwist and lengthen, to form a low pattern area of soft pile 36 (Fig. 10) with a high field of straight singles 35 as in Fig. 9. If desired the high singles 35 may be napped to form a pattern area of low soft pile 36 and a field of high soft pile 37 as in Fig. 10.

Various other combinations will be apparent to a person skilled in the art. The invention permits the use of a single type of pile yarn for the entire surface area and treatment by a selected pattern to cause selected pile to change in height after weaving so as to produce various textured effects.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of making a textured pile fabric, which comprises securing in a backing an area of pile tufts composed'of a yarn having a temporary set while under a strain resulting from being twisted and held straight and removing the temporary set from a portion only of said area corresponding to a selected pattern under conditions to cause said pile tufts in said pattern area only to relax.

2. The method of making a textured pile fabric, which comprises securing in a backing an area of pile tufts composed of a yarn having a temporary set while under a strain resulting from being twisted and held straight, removing the temporary set from a portion only of said area corresponding to a selected pattern, and treating said fabric to cause the pile tufts in said pattern area to relax and change in height.

3. The method of making a textured pile fabric, which comprises securing in a backing an area of pile tufts composed of a yarn having a temporary set while under a strain resulting from being twisted and held straight, removing the temporary set from a portion only of said area corresponding to a selected pattern to cause said :pile tufts in said pattern area to relax and change in height, and permanently setting all of said pile tufts to form a product in which the pattern area contrasts from the surrounding field.

4. The method of making a textured pile fabric, which comprises securing in a backing an area of pile tufts composed of a yarn of two or more plies temporarily set with a final plying twist of a given hand but being permanently preset with an initial plying twist of the opposite hand, and treating the pile in a portion only of said area to remove the temporary set and cause the treated pile to deform and pull down below the height of the untreated pile so as to form a depressed pattern area in a higher field.

5. In the method set forth in claim 4 the additional step of permanently setting the tufts in the last mentioned form.

6. In the method set forth in claim 4 the additional step of napping the untreated pile to untwist the same and reduce thereby their tendency to pull down when relaxed, then removing the temporary set from said last pile to cause them to pull down but to a lesser extent than said first treated pile.

7. In the method set forth in claim 4 the additional step of napping the untreated pile to untwist the same and form soft pile tufts and setting the pile in the last mentioned form.

8. In the method set forth in claim 7 the additional step of shearing the untreated pile tufts to the same height as the pulled-down tufts.

9. In the method set forth in claim 4 the additional step of shearing the untreated pile tufts to the same height as the pulled-down tufts.

10. The method of making a textured pile fabric, which comprises securing in a backing an area of pile tufts composed of a yarn of two or more plies temporarily set with a final plying twist of a given hand but being permanently preset with an initial plying twist of the opposite hand, and treating the pile in a portion only of said area to remove the temporary set and cause-the individual plies in the treated pile tufts to separate and coil in the form of interleaved helices so as to form a depressed pattern area in a higher field.

11. In the method set forth in claim 10 the additional step of permanently setting the tufts in the last menioned form.

12. In the method set forth in claim 10 the additional step of napping the untreated pile to untwist the same and reduce thereby their tendency to pull down when relaxed, then removing the temporary set from said last pile to cause them to pull down but to a lesser extent than said first treated pile.

13. In the method set forth in claim 10 the additional step of napping the untreated pile to untwist the same and form soft pile tufts and setting the pile in the last mentioned form. 7

14. In the method set forth in claim 10 the additional step of shearing the untreated pile tufts to the same height as the pulled down tufts.

15. The method of making textured pile fabric, which comprises securing in a backing an area of pile tufts composed of a frieze yarn of two or more plies, the plies being hard twisted and permanently set and being plied with a twist of the same hand and temporarily set in plied form, and treating the pile in a portion only of said area to remove the temporary set and cause the plies of the treated pile to untwist and increase in lengthso as to form a raised pattern area.

the untreated pile, then treating the entire pile area to remove the temporary set from the unsheared pile and cause the plies of the latter to untwist and increase in length so as to form a high field surrounding a lower pattern area.

17. The method of making textured pile fabric, which comprises securing in a backing an area of'pile tufts composed of a frieze yarn of two or more plies, the plies being hard twisted and permanently set and being plied with a twist of the same hand and temporarily set in plied form, treating the pile in a portion only of said area to remove the temporary set and cause the plies of the treated pile to untwist and increase in length so as to form a raised pattern area, and permanently setting all of the tufts in the last form.

18. The method of making textured pile fabric, which comprises securing in a backing an area of pile tufts,

composed of a frieze yarn of two or more plies, the

treated pile to form soft pile tufts in said pattern areas.- 19. In the method set forth in claim 18, the additional steps of shearing the treated pile to the same height as the untreated pile, then treating the entire pile area to remove he temporary set from the unsheared pile and; to cause the plies of the latter to untwist and increase in length so as to form a raised field around a depressed pattern area of soft pile.

20. In the method set forth in claim 19 the additional step of napping the field pile to forin a raised field of soft pile.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 7 Number Name Date 2,557,453 Miller June 19, 1951' 2,662,558 Mersereau, Jr., et al Dec. 15, 1953- 2,662,559 Miller Dec. '15, 1953 2,662,560 Jackson Dec. 15, 1953 

